The Indian telecom industry has come a long way in 25 years – from the GSM\/2G era to now being at the brink of 5G. Nokia<\/a> has been an integral part of this journey - from enabling rapid growth of the 2G\/GSM technology in early 2000, bringing high-quality 3G services in 2011, pioneering 4G\/LTE technology in 2012 to now steering India towards the 5G revolution. Today, every single call in India touches the Nokia element somewhere in a complete call flow and close to 1\/3rd of India’s mobile subscribers are carried by networks supplied, installed and managed by Nokia.
This growth has been enabled through a promising ecosystem of local and global telecom players, supported by the Government of India’s incentives and policies.
Over the years, the Indian Government’s mission has evolved from Make in India to an Atmanirbhar Bharat<\/a> – a self-reliant India – both being two facets of the same underlying vision. The Hon'ble Prime Minister has well-articulated this vision with his ‘5-I’ mantra of intent, inclusion, investment, infrastructure, and innovation. He has also emphasized that a self-reliant India will embrace the world and will be more integrated with the global ecosystem. Nokia, while being a global company, has made India our first home with our largest workforce concentrated in the nation. With the intent of developing an inclusive ecosystem driven by innovation, we’ve progressively invested over several thousand crores towards building world-class infrastructure in India
The concept of self-reliance has been at the center of Nokia’s values. Our belief in India’s potential as a global manufacturing hub led us to establish one of the largest telecom manufacturing units of India with best-in-class infrastructure spread over 140,000 sq.m. We further renewed our commitment towards harnessing the local technical capabilities when our facility based in Chennai became the first to manufacture 5G radio equipment in India. The factory caters to both domestic and the international markets with 50% of manufactured equipment shipped to over 100 countries.
As we move forward, re-imagining self-reliance will be pertinent to the growth of businesses in India. At Nokia, we view self-reliance through the lens of development and empowerment which has been one of our key priorities in our journey in India. Our India manufacturing unit has been enabling over a dozen MSME ancillaries which are central to generating further jobs and opportunities in the sector, while our R&D center in Bengaluru has been supporting over 30 start-ups, both through technology handholding and providing business avenues to larger markets.
Employment generation is another key ingredient for a self-reliant economy, and it will be even more crucial in a post-COVID-19 world. At a time when the economy is struggling to hold ground in the wake of the pandemic, we need organizations that are committed to navigating the storm while enduring the biggest challenges that come their way. Nokia has been known for its resilience and for its ability to survive through its highs and lows. We further take pride in how far we’ve come in India while continuing to expand our presence.
In the last two decades, we’ve seen our business grow from strength to strength through our strategic partnerships and collaborations with Communication Service Providers<\/a> (CSPs), government units and leading enterprises of India. Nokia has been a significant contributor to the Indian economy by generating a considerable amount in foreign exchange while contributing significantly towards direct taxes. With sustainable development being a core part of our business model, we’ve contributed over INR 100 crore towards CSR activities in India so far.
Moreover, our Global Delivery Centers in Chennai and Noida are employing over 4,000 highly skilled employees in India that provide support for various stages of the networks across 102 countries while managing around 5,50,000 base stations with millions of subscribers across 26 countries.
Additionally, our Bengaluru Technology Center is one of the 4 main global R&D sites for the company, employing over 6,000 people. The R&D center is undertaking research in various advanced global telecommunication technologies such as cloud, big data analytics, software applications, next-generation core, IP, optical, 4G<\/a> and 5G among others. Our consistent and focused investment towards R&D in India is an endorsement of our vision of driving innovation in the Indian telecom industry.
We keep strengthening our commitment to India by strategically expanding our presence across regions, functions and units while also increasing our share in the network equipment market. The country houses talent and expertise that is worthy of global recognition, especially in the field of technology and we are driven to encourage such capabilities as we believe in India’s potential to be the next global manufacturing hub. We’re certain that our reputation as one of the world’s most ethical companies will play a key role in building and securing the networks of tomorrow. It will be a pleasure for Nokia to be a part of India’s growth journey!
(The author is Head of Marketing & Corporate Affairs, Nokia)<\/strong>
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